Date/Time
Date(s) - April 16, 2018
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Location
Grandview Calvary Baptist Church
Categories No Categories
To enter into discussions of the housing crisis in the Lower Mainland is to find yourself in a room full of smoke and mirrors. The spotlight of the crisis has shifted from solving homelessness to making home ownership more affordable to the professional class; explanations for the crisis have moved from government austerity policies that severely restricted construction of social housing to the influx of foreign capital into a speculative housing market.
Within mainstream public discussions there have also been other kinds of shifts, constantly changing definitions of terms once thought to have consistent meaning. Phrases such as “co-op housing” or “social housing” have gone through redefinitions either in policy or in practice; and what is meant by “supportive housing” or more recently “modular housing” is undergoing reconfiguration. Furthermore, throughout these changes, “affordability” has become an empty signifier, filled by the particular interests of whoever is using the term.
This forum is meant to blow away some of the smoke so we can get more clarity on the changing discourse and understand why these shifts are taking place. We want to explore the historical significance of these shifts, bring ourselves up to speed on politics driving them, and strategize ways we can cut through the fog and sharpen our fight together for housing justice.
PANEL PRESENTERS:
~ Natalie Knight, Alliance Against Displacement
~ Marc Lee, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
~ Lama Mugabo, Hogan’s Alley Trust and Carnegie Community Action Project
Snacks and childcare provided.
Accessibility:
Grandview Calvary Baptist Church’s kitchen’s entrance is at street level, which gives access to washrooms, kitchen and lower hall. One washroom has a stall that can accommodate a wheelchair. The washroom door opening is 86 cm, and the stall door is 61 cm. Multi-stall gender neutral washrooms.
This event is hosted on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples – specifically the sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) nations. Streams of Justice is committed to dismantling settler-colonial infrastructure, striving towards right relations, and to being allies in the struggle for Indigenous sovereignty on unceded and occupied lands.
Event organized by Streams of Justice:
https://streamsofjustice.wordpress.com/